Author's Note: I wasn't going to repost this story after my account got wiped out.. but... I got fans who think otherwise... continue to review this story if you like it, I'd appreciate it.
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A/N (original): It took me within moments of reading the finished Carosel For Two to come up with this idea...( I'm good at writing sequels ^_^ ).
Note: (yes I have to dedicate stories to people all the time, I know I know...) I MUST dedicate this to my friend Chris... some call him Takato (unfortunatly he's a Takato-look-a-like/act-a-like) or as the girls now call him... 'pooky'... (don't ask.. long story...). If it wasn't for him this whole sequel woulda never popped up in my head.. (he was tryin' to make fun of my 'Rika' phase I go in sometimes and he accidently inspired me...)
~
The sun set over the horizon, casting a beautiful orange glow on the entire city as Henry Wong sat in the apartment he shared with the rest of his rather large family, staring out the large window in the living room. He'd spend hours on long dreary summer days just staring out that window, mostly when it was too hot for the tamers to have their weekly meetings, tempatures soaring well past one-hundred this past Friday night. It was Monday now on this hot day smack in the middle of June. School hadn't let out too far back in the month, and the kids were already growing restless, being cooped up inside most the day from the heat.
Henry'd spent a full three hours on the phone with his girlfriend, Rika, who'd been with him in the relationship since the autumn before. They sat in their rooms chatting about random things until Rika's grandmother's voice was clearly heard, demanding for her to get off the phone. Henry had nothing to do since that one moment.
Suzy tugged on his sleeveless white shirt a few times earlier, begging for him to play with her, but he had objected and went back to being slumped over the bulky couch arm staring out at the sunlit city below, rarely seeing anyone out on the sidewalks that were usually packed with people this time of day.
IceRenamon, Terriermon's form that both tamer and digimon throughly enjoyed him being in, didn't brave the hot weather either, though it was clear to Henry the sky-blue fox digimon was going restless with the dark approaching.
Henry looked over at the digimon sitting on the top of the couch, invisible to anyone else who tried to see him. He had grown to see why Rika treasured Renamon so much in the past months, also understood Rika's problem with Renamon being gone more than five hours at a time, having had a scare of his own before when IceRenamon hadn't shown for multiple days at a time.
After a dense conversation with the digimon, though, it was agreed to come to the same terms as the other fox digimon and her tamer.
Henry's thoughts strayed back to the red-haired girl always on his mind of late. Her attitude seemed to change with the seasons, growing cold and harsh now in the summer month upon them.
She had gone from calling the brown-sugar colored haired boy from 'Takato' back to 'Goggle-head' like she always had, even snapped at Henry himself a few times. She couldn't sit amongst the group of digidestined for more than a hour at a time at the most, saying they were 'making her go crazy'. She rarely smiled, rarely cried, and it was impossible to come to the realization of a laugh.
He could remember the last words Rika said over the phone, probably not even noticing Henry had heard her as she hung the receiver up; "Look, Grandma, if I can't be with my friends then I'm heading outside... I don't care how hot it is I'm not staying cramped up in this stupid house without any contact with my friends!" and then the phone went dead.
He prayed silently that she was just threatening, the heat outside could take anyone out instantly, but, this was Rika we were talking about. Henry felt a knot grow in his stomach as he thought about Rika probably lying unconcious somewhere from heat exhaustion, no-one to help her, dyi--
His thoughts were cut off when the phone rang, making him jump half-way out of his skin.
His father picked up the phone that sat across the room from Henry.
"Hello?"
Henry settled back in the couch, trying to calm down his extremly fast beating heart as much as possible, and sighed. It was only hypothetical, after all, Rika was probably sitting in her room at home going over her cards, thinking up new strategies to kick Kazu's butt with the next time she saw him.
"What?!"
Henry's attention was diverted yet once again at his father's tone of voice going from casual to panicked instantly. Henry saw IceRenamon out of the corner of his eye bolt up alert as well.
"She's where? Okay... yes we'll be right there.."
The worried look on his father's face sent a bolt of fear through Henry's heart. Was Suzy in trouble? His mother? His sister? Maybe his grandmother that lived out of town aways...
"Henry..." his father said solemnly as he put down the receiver and looked up at his son sitting upright on the couch, his gray eyes filled with fear.
"It's.. Rika..."
Worse then what he had originally thought, Henry jumped to his feet and gave a loud shriek.
"What? What happened? Is she okay? Where is she? When can we go? I have to see her now!"
"Calm down! I'll explain on the way to the hospital..." Henry's father slipped on his shoes sitting nearby.
"THE HOSPITAL?!?"
"Henry just get ready..." Mr. Wong said sharply at the screaming son.
Without another moment's notice, Henry had his shoes on and was already in the elevator heading down towards the car sitting in the apartment building's parking lot, tottaly oblivious to the fact that it was now ninety-seven degrees outside, the only thing on his mind was the auburn-haired girl that had stolen his heart almost a full year before.
Henry sat beside a long hospital bed, surrounded by Takato, Jeri, Kazu, and Kenta, all anxiously awaiting either the explaination or Rika to wake up.
The doctor walked in, tall with dark hair and a smiling face as he looked at the five worried teenagers surrounding the tough-looking girl, currently unconcious.
"Have your parents explained what happened yet to you?"
Henry was silent, just staring at Rika, currently bandanged up like a mummy in ancient Egypt from being banged up pretty horribly, letting Takato or one of the others answer the question.
"No sir." Kazu was the one who answered.
The doctor clutched the small board which held Rika's chart against his stomach and smiled again at the teens.
"The heat got to her, she collasped, fell down a flight of stairs, hit her head pretty hard. But she'll be fine. No broken bones, fractured limbs... I have a feeling she'll live."
A loud sigh of relief filled the room from the combined five.
The doctor smiled at Henry, the only person sitting down and touching a single part of the girl laying on the bed, holding her hand gently in his.
"Girlfriend?"
Henry nodded slowly, eyes never peeling off the girl.
"She'll be fine. She just needs to rest."
With that the doctor walked off, his steps being heard on the cold marble floor until he closed the door behind him.
The same eery silence that had gone before conquered the room as all eyes turned to Rika, the only sound was those of the intercoms outside the room echoing the calls to doctors and the sound of the beeps off the heart monitor attached onto Rika, giving a slow steady pace as she breathed peacefully.
Soon eyes turned to one another, giving silent remarks instead of words, and Jeri sighed loudly, collasping onto the edge of the windowsill, maintaining a clear view of who she considered to be her best friend laying unconcious on a hospital bed, a place that, even Takato, could never even imagine to ever see Rika.
Takato seemed to be at a loss for words, for Rika, or Henry. He turned thoughts of mean things he'd said to the girl before today that might've brought on the urge to go against her grandmother's will. He'd already been through the whole 'it's not your fault' conversation with Jeri earlier, but it really didn't seem to help, he still thought it was, and was completly sure Henry thought the same of himself.
Takato just put his hand on Henry's shoulder, a silent voice to him that everything would be fine as he went and sat beside Jeri.
Kazu and Kenta were much the same, more stunned that they were one of the people called when the accident happened then anything else.
"Uhhh..."
All attention turned back to Rika, now moaning as she opened her eyes, blinking a few times from the sudden light that hit her in the face overhead.
"Rika!" Everyone exclaimed at once.
She looked around the room, a bit dizzily at first then grew a confused look on her face, letting all anger and frustration in her voice vanish as she asked a simple question that anyone in her position would.
"Where am I?"
"You took a hard fall back there little lady." Kazu grinned. "Caused yourself to be in the hospital."
"Oh.." Rika responded quickly, then looked at the group, a sudden look of confusion crossing her face.
"Rika I'm just glad you're safe." Henry said quietly, trying to keep himself from breaking down.
The look on Rika's face grew even more confused as she studied his face. She shook her head softly in yet another confused motion.
"Who are you?"
The whole group exchanged nervous glances then looked back at Rika as a long strecth of silence followed.
Henry gave a nervous laugh as he stood from his position. "R-Rika... it's Henry..."
Rika's face grew an even more confused expression on her face.
"I'm sorry... I don't know you."
With one swift motion Jeri pushed back Henry and got right up beside Rika.
"What about me... Jeri?"
A silence followed as Rika studied the girl's face, her eyes narrowed as if trying to mentally dig up her memories that were lost.
Rika gave a sigh and shook her head. "I'm sorry... I don't."
Henry slumped against the wall, short of breath repeating 'this can't be happening' over and over again under his breath just as the doctor walked in with a worried look on his face, noticing Rika sitting up in her hospital bed with a disturbed look on her face. She looked over at the doctor and swallowed back tears.
"Sir, I'm supposed to know them, aren't I?"
Many of the other digidestined surrounding her clutched onto furniture or the chair-rail on the wall in disbelief. Rika didn't remember any of them anymore.
"Yes, Rika, I'm sorry." The doctor looked over at Henry. "I just finished talking with Rika's mother and grandmother. The fall was harder than we thought. She has amnesia, she can't remember anything in the past year or s--"
"RIKA ARE YOU OKAY?!?"
The doctor was pushed out of her way as Rika's mother ran into the room, rushing to her daughter's side.
"Baby are you okay? Does it hurt, trust me we'll get you the best medical attention in the world!"
"I'm okay, Mom..." Rika replied softly, smiling.
Henry felt his heart sink. 'In the past year or so'.. she remembered her own mother, but not anyone else. The girl that had stolen his heart away, brought out all those hidden feelings he had bundled up inside for so long, had gone back mentally before she had ever met them.
He snapped out of his emotional rut when Rika turned her now watery violet eyes to him.
"I'm sorry... I want to remember you..." she whispered. Henry couldn't really hear what she said, but the words mouthed was enough to make him smile a bit.
"It's okay Rika." he said loud enough for everyone to hear. "I know you do."
Rika had been in the hospital for a whole twenty-four hour period, and Henry still sat in the wooden chair in the corner of Rika's room, refusing to eat anything, always keeping his eye on her. Everyone else, including Rika's own mother and grandmother, had gone home, and despite much pleading from every one of the digidestined, plus his parents and older siblings, Henry stayed behind, saying he made a promise to be with Rika through whatever happened until the day he died and he wasn't going back on that promise now.
He had dwifted off to sleep only hours before, having the landscape of the city outside the large window beside Rika's bed lull him to sleep, when he was awaken by a soft sobbing, not a sobbing from anyone he had heard it from before.
"I should have been there for you... I should have stayed by your side... why wasn't I there to provent this?!" the words were muffled, but Henry could make them all out.
Henry blinked a bit and looked at the clock above Rika's hospital bed before looking over at the person sobbing, as much as possible having the nurse turn the light out in the hospital room once seeing both Rika and Henry were asleep.
"1:48 AM.." he thought to himself, straightening himself a bit in the chair to try and look at the bed.
Henry blinked some more, trying to keep his eyes to stay open and not fall instantly back to sleep, having not slept at all since two days ago when they first came to the hospital.
He managed to look over and bolted up in his chair to a yellow-colored fox digimon, head burried in the blanket beside where Rika slept soundly, and easily being able to tell she was sobbing. Her fur coat glistened in the moonlight floating through the window.
"Renamon?"
Renamon's head came up abruptly. "Henry.. I didn't see you there." she managed to sink back into her sober low tone of voice, standing to her feet, glad her eyes were more digimon-like than human-like, thinking Henry didn't notice her crying.
Renamon's attention switched to Rika, who gave a content sigh in her sleep.
"What... am I supposed to do now? I know she won't remember me if she won't remember you." Renamon choked out, grasping both her paws into tight fists, struggling to keep back more tears.
Henry felt his eyes start to water over. Renamon, even in the past year or so of being concidered 'girlfriend' to his own digimon, had never displayed even being capable of having this sort of emotion.
"Renamon..." he repeated, only sympotheticly this time.
"How can you stand it...? I'm only her digimon, and I'm having a hard time knowing she'll have no memory of me at all."
"I can't." Henry took at step towards Renamon, eyes never peeling off Rika's form. "I can't stand knowing that she might never know me as she did before ever again, that all we've been through is gone now."
Renamon kept silent, staring at her tamer.
"I just think... you should stay at my place until she gets used to the rest of us... humans..."
Renamon was still silent, turning Henry's remark over in her head a few times.
"I'm sure IceRenamon's going to get lonely, I'm probably going to be out of the house and with Rika for awhile when she gets well."
Renamon sighed and nodded. "I know you're right... it's just--"
"Hard.. I know." Henry whispered, and turned his head to look at her, then smiled.
"Go get some rest or something. I'll be home tomorrow morning."
Renamon nodded and vanished into thin air, like she always did, and Henry fell completly silent, walking over to the window and looking out at the city glistening in the moonlight, lake in the park just across the street from them reflecting the stars.
"H-henry?"
Henry spun around to the hospital bed creaking as Rika sat up slowly.
Henry smiled and walked over to her side, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"What are you still doing here?" Rika asked in a low tone of voice, strained and raspy.
"Don't worry about that, you need your rest. The medication the doctors gave you is harsh, you need to lay back down." Henry gently pushed her by her shoulders back into the soft white pillow and smiled once more.
"I'll be here until morning if you need me."
Rika sighed and shifted her gaze to the window, looking out at all the tall buildings glowing a bright white color from the moon. "I still want you to answer the question."
Henry sighed, standing up and lifting the white sheet and baby blue knitted blanket up to her shoulders.
"Something I promised you awhile back. Now you just get some sleep."
Henry walked back around the bed and collasped into the wooden chair. Sure, it wasn't comfortable, but it was good enough for the time being.
Henry smirked again noticing Rika, laying still awake across from him, seeing her slight movements in the moonlight that danced across the bed.
"What's wrong?" he almost laughed at her groan that followed.
"How do you expect me to sleep when you answered my question like that? It only makes me remember that I've forgotten half my childhood."
"Now, that's an overstatement." Henry smirked, and stood back up, sitting on the bed again as she shifted under the sheets to look up at him. "You've only lost your memory for the past year or so... it could be worse."
"Yeah I know I know." she sighed. "But I still mostly have no clue who you are, and it's killing me because somewhere in my mind I know you played a huge part of my life."
Henry hung his head a bit, the lifted it back up to look at her.
"It's not that I did... it's that I am... there's a differance." he moved his hand over to her and softly stroked her hair. "Now go back to sleep... I'll stay right here instead, how about that."
Rika nodded slightly and closed her eyes, rolling over a bit, setting her head on Henry's leg and sighing as she went back to sleep.
Henry just smiled, not thinking much of it, and kept stroking the girl's hair.
The weather had cooled down after a few weeks into the summer months. It was now mid-July, tempatures dipping back down to eighty degrees, and a gentle breeze circling around the figure of Rika Nonaka as she stood on the shoreline of the beach a few miles away from the bustling city she lived in every day. She had tagged along with Henry's family on their trip to this secluded beach, in hopes of making friends with Henry again.
Her recovery had gone along extremely well, better than expected from the doctors, she was sent home a few days after waking up in that hospital room. She still couldn't remember anything about any of her 'friends', or why they were always so surprised if she smiled or said anything kind to them, but she did know that she didn't like being stared at because of her looks. The photos in her room showed her the reason of that story by the tough looking Rika in the pictures, often smirking for a smile or just frowning.
She couldn't understand why she was so angry anymore, why she had to dress so out of place like that, she liked how she dressed now, and so did her mother.
Rika stood on top of a tall gray stone standing amongst others, all relatively lower than what she stood on.
She closed her eyes to the gentle sea breeze rustling through her long auburn hair and let her pastel blue silk skirt float in the breeze, the navy blue hawaiian like flowers on it flowing in waves as the wind rushed through the high split up the side of the skirt that was now up a few inches past her ankles from the wind pressing against it.
She looked over at Henry sitting yards away on the sand of the beach, his head darting in the other direction as soon as she met his eyes. It was obvious to her he had been staring at her quite some time from the look on his brother's face.
She just smiled to herself and went back to looking out at the crystal-like water, reflecting the gray cloudy skies. It was almost like those pictures of New England over in America that she had seen, and it calmed her aching emotions a bit. She smoothed down her white tank top with her hands and pretended not to see Suzy trying desparatly to climb the rock behind her.
Henry's brother nudged him and smirked. "Henry, you better take her before I do..."
Henry looked over briefly at Rika, now holding his little sister on her thigh.
"I don't know.. I thought I did take her..."
"Take her again." he persisted his little brother.
Henry fell silent, digging his hands into the cool sand and watching Rika, who he swore for a brief moment looked his way and smiled.
"She thinks we were just friends, okay... it's not that easy..."
"Fine I'll pair you up then." his brother responded.
Henry sat up straight and stared at him. "No no! Last time you tried to pair me up with someone you failed so miserably that even TAKATO hated my guts for an entire week, and he didn't even know Jennifer!"
"Jennifer was a freak."
"No duh.." Henry felt himself grin, and slip into a laugh right along with his older brother.
"Go talk to her." his brother nudged him with his elbow and nodded towards Rika. "Tell Suzy to come and build a sandcastle or something."
Henry stood up from the sand, and brushed off his beige-colored shorts, looking back up at Rika.
She looked so.... different now. It didn't make much sense to him, seeing that he had seen her dressed differently before, but there was a sort of beauty all it's own in her now.
"Dude... com'on..."
Henry turned around to his brother urging him on.
Henry took a deep breath and started his walk across the sand to the large rock Rika stood on.
"Um.. Suzy... can you leave me and Rika.. alone? Please?" he muttered as he reached the bottom of the rock.
Rika put Suzy back down on the cold rock and let her run off, standing back up in all her beauty and smiled at him.
Henry rubbed the back of his neck slowly as he made his way up the rock beside her.
"How do you like the view?"
Rika smiled once again as he stood beside her, looking out onto the water that reflected a gray color.
"It's lovely."
"Sorta like you." Henry spoke the words, looking over at her out of the corner of his eye.
Rika felt her face burn with the blush coming onto her cheeks and she brushed a loose piece of hair back behind her ear.
"Thank you.. but I'm sure you didn't come over here just to talk to me about my looks."
"No.. I didn't." Henry shoved his hands into his pockets.
"So, what did you come to talk to me about?" Rika looked over at him, a look of curiosity in her eyes.
Henry sat down on the rock, Rika soon following his example, letting her legs dangle over the edge of the rock, with every wave that crashed across the rock, the bottom of her skirt getting more and more wet.
"About our friendship..."
Rika's eyes grew panicked as she looked at him.
Henry just laughed at the look and shook his head. "No no I'm not breaking up our friendship..."
Rika let out a sigh of relief. Things hadn't been going so well with Takato and the rest of the guys in the friendship department, something about name-calling. And Jeri seemed distant of late, not wanting to be around many people except Takato.
"God, I don't know how exactly to say it..." he said a bit under his breath.
Rika sighed and looked out to the ocean standing before them, waiting for him to find words to put it into.
There was much 'um's and 'uh's before Henry cleared his throat, then fell completly silent, only sound was that of Suzy's laughter and the waves banging against each other in the surf.
Rika and Henry both slipped into their own private worlds as one tried to think of what to say, the other trying to hear it before the words came out.
Rika's eyes grew wide and she looked over at him.
"We... were more then just... friends.... weren't we?"
Henry returned her glance, opened his mouth to say something, as one of the waves crashed onto the rock, sending water all over them.
Rika let out a shriek and Henry just covered his face with his arms.
After the wave sank back into the ocean, Henry and Rika looked at each other, Rika with her hair soaken wet, hanging in her face, and Henry, his clothes sticking tightly to his body.
Both burst into roaring laughter at just the look of each other.
Henry stood up, still laughing and took Rika's hand, pulling her up beside him.
"You okay?" he asked, still chuckling a bit as he pushed the hair back out of her face and back behind her ears.
Rika smiled and nodded. "You?"
"Perfect."
Rika just smiled once more and made her way back down the rock, towards the beach to go play a bit with Suzy who had already started to call her name.
Henry waited until he was sure she was just enough out of range not to hear or see him.
"STUPID STUPID STUPID!" he smacked his forehead hard and clentched his fists. It took all the courage he could manage just to say something to her, and it was all for nothing.
He'd... just have to try again. Yeah, that was it. He'd get another chance... but what if he choked like he had before? What if something else were to happen to interrupt him before he got a chance to say...
"HENRY!! LUNCH!"
Henry looked up at Rika running gracefully up to him, spite of her long wet dress.
"Okay.. coming."
Rika came to a slow stop in front of him and frowned. "What's wrong?"
Henry shrugged and started to walk back to the sandy beach. "Nothing... nevermind it."
Rika walked right beside him, and stepped closer to him, nudging him with her hip. "I know something's wrong... we'll get to talk later.. you said you'd take me to dinner tonight remember?"
Henry laughed, he'd tottally forgotten that promise he made. "Yes I remember now..."
Rika placed a kiss on his cheek and laughed mischievously. "Race 'ya over there!"
Like that she was off, prancing like a startled deer towards the beach.
"HEY THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Henry yelled after her, taking off.
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A/N (original): It took me within moments of reading the finished Carosel For Two to come up with this idea...( I'm good at writing sequels ^_^ ).
Note: (yes I have to dedicate stories to people all the time, I know I know...) I MUST dedicate this to my friend Chris... some call him Takato (unfortunatly he's a Takato-look-a-like/act-a-like) or as the girls now call him... 'pooky'... (don't ask.. long story...). If it wasn't for him this whole sequel woulda never popped up in my head.. (he was tryin' to make fun of my 'Rika' phase I go in sometimes and he accidently inspired me...)
~
The sun set over the horizon, casting a beautiful orange glow on the entire city as Henry Wong sat in the apartment he shared with the rest of his rather large family, staring out the large window in the living room. He'd spend hours on long dreary summer days just staring out that window, mostly when it was too hot for the tamers to have their weekly meetings, tempatures soaring well past one-hundred this past Friday night. It was Monday now on this hot day smack in the middle of June. School hadn't let out too far back in the month, and the kids were already growing restless, being cooped up inside most the day from the heat.
Henry'd spent a full three hours on the phone with his girlfriend, Rika, who'd been with him in the relationship since the autumn before. They sat in their rooms chatting about random things until Rika's grandmother's voice was clearly heard, demanding for her to get off the phone. Henry had nothing to do since that one moment.
Suzy tugged on his sleeveless white shirt a few times earlier, begging for him to play with her, but he had objected and went back to being slumped over the bulky couch arm staring out at the sunlit city below, rarely seeing anyone out on the sidewalks that were usually packed with people this time of day.
IceRenamon, Terriermon's form that both tamer and digimon throughly enjoyed him being in, didn't brave the hot weather either, though it was clear to Henry the sky-blue fox digimon was going restless with the dark approaching.
Henry looked over at the digimon sitting on the top of the couch, invisible to anyone else who tried to see him. He had grown to see why Rika treasured Renamon so much in the past months, also understood Rika's problem with Renamon being gone more than five hours at a time, having had a scare of his own before when IceRenamon hadn't shown for multiple days at a time.
After a dense conversation with the digimon, though, it was agreed to come to the same terms as the other fox digimon and her tamer.
Henry's thoughts strayed back to the red-haired girl always on his mind of late. Her attitude seemed to change with the seasons, growing cold and harsh now in the summer month upon them.
She had gone from calling the brown-sugar colored haired boy from 'Takato' back to 'Goggle-head' like she always had, even snapped at Henry himself a few times. She couldn't sit amongst the group of digidestined for more than a hour at a time at the most, saying they were 'making her go crazy'. She rarely smiled, rarely cried, and it was impossible to come to the realization of a laugh.
He could remember the last words Rika said over the phone, probably not even noticing Henry had heard her as she hung the receiver up; "Look, Grandma, if I can't be with my friends then I'm heading outside... I don't care how hot it is I'm not staying cramped up in this stupid house without any contact with my friends!" and then the phone went dead.
He prayed silently that she was just threatening, the heat outside could take anyone out instantly, but, this was Rika we were talking about. Henry felt a knot grow in his stomach as he thought about Rika probably lying unconcious somewhere from heat exhaustion, no-one to help her, dyi--
His thoughts were cut off when the phone rang, making him jump half-way out of his skin.
His father picked up the phone that sat across the room from Henry.
"Hello?"
Henry settled back in the couch, trying to calm down his extremly fast beating heart as much as possible, and sighed. It was only hypothetical, after all, Rika was probably sitting in her room at home going over her cards, thinking up new strategies to kick Kazu's butt with the next time she saw him.
"What?!"
Henry's attention was diverted yet once again at his father's tone of voice going from casual to panicked instantly. Henry saw IceRenamon out of the corner of his eye bolt up alert as well.
"She's where? Okay... yes we'll be right there.."
The worried look on his father's face sent a bolt of fear through Henry's heart. Was Suzy in trouble? His mother? His sister? Maybe his grandmother that lived out of town aways...
"Henry..." his father said solemnly as he put down the receiver and looked up at his son sitting upright on the couch, his gray eyes filled with fear.
"It's.. Rika..."
Worse then what he had originally thought, Henry jumped to his feet and gave a loud shriek.
"What? What happened? Is she okay? Where is she? When can we go? I have to see her now!"
"Calm down! I'll explain on the way to the hospital..." Henry's father slipped on his shoes sitting nearby.
"THE HOSPITAL?!?"
"Henry just get ready..." Mr. Wong said sharply at the screaming son.
Without another moment's notice, Henry had his shoes on and was already in the elevator heading down towards the car sitting in the apartment building's parking lot, tottaly oblivious to the fact that it was now ninety-seven degrees outside, the only thing on his mind was the auburn-haired girl that had stolen his heart almost a full year before.
Henry sat beside a long hospital bed, surrounded by Takato, Jeri, Kazu, and Kenta, all anxiously awaiting either the explaination or Rika to wake up.
The doctor walked in, tall with dark hair and a smiling face as he looked at the five worried teenagers surrounding the tough-looking girl, currently unconcious.
"Have your parents explained what happened yet to you?"
Henry was silent, just staring at Rika, currently bandanged up like a mummy in ancient Egypt from being banged up pretty horribly, letting Takato or one of the others answer the question.
"No sir." Kazu was the one who answered.
The doctor clutched the small board which held Rika's chart against his stomach and smiled again at the teens.
"The heat got to her, she collasped, fell down a flight of stairs, hit her head pretty hard. But she'll be fine. No broken bones, fractured limbs... I have a feeling she'll live."
A loud sigh of relief filled the room from the combined five.
The doctor smiled at Henry, the only person sitting down and touching a single part of the girl laying on the bed, holding her hand gently in his.
"Girlfriend?"
Henry nodded slowly, eyes never peeling off the girl.
"She'll be fine. She just needs to rest."
With that the doctor walked off, his steps being heard on the cold marble floor until he closed the door behind him.
The same eery silence that had gone before conquered the room as all eyes turned to Rika, the only sound was those of the intercoms outside the room echoing the calls to doctors and the sound of the beeps off the heart monitor attached onto Rika, giving a slow steady pace as she breathed peacefully.
Soon eyes turned to one another, giving silent remarks instead of words, and Jeri sighed loudly, collasping onto the edge of the windowsill, maintaining a clear view of who she considered to be her best friend laying unconcious on a hospital bed, a place that, even Takato, could never even imagine to ever see Rika.
Takato seemed to be at a loss for words, for Rika, or Henry. He turned thoughts of mean things he'd said to the girl before today that might've brought on the urge to go against her grandmother's will. He'd already been through the whole 'it's not your fault' conversation with Jeri earlier, but it really didn't seem to help, he still thought it was, and was completly sure Henry thought the same of himself.
Takato just put his hand on Henry's shoulder, a silent voice to him that everything would be fine as he went and sat beside Jeri.
Kazu and Kenta were much the same, more stunned that they were one of the people called when the accident happened then anything else.
"Uhhh..."
All attention turned back to Rika, now moaning as she opened her eyes, blinking a few times from the sudden light that hit her in the face overhead.
"Rika!" Everyone exclaimed at once.
She looked around the room, a bit dizzily at first then grew a confused look on her face, letting all anger and frustration in her voice vanish as she asked a simple question that anyone in her position would.
"Where am I?"
"You took a hard fall back there little lady." Kazu grinned. "Caused yourself to be in the hospital."
"Oh.." Rika responded quickly, then looked at the group, a sudden look of confusion crossing her face.
"Rika I'm just glad you're safe." Henry said quietly, trying to keep himself from breaking down.
The look on Rika's face grew even more confused as she studied his face. She shook her head softly in yet another confused motion.
"Who are you?"
The whole group exchanged nervous glances then looked back at Rika as a long strecth of silence followed.
Henry gave a nervous laugh as he stood from his position. "R-Rika... it's Henry..."
Rika's face grew an even more confused expression on her face.
"I'm sorry... I don't know you."
With one swift motion Jeri pushed back Henry and got right up beside Rika.
"What about me... Jeri?"
A silence followed as Rika studied the girl's face, her eyes narrowed as if trying to mentally dig up her memories that were lost.
Rika gave a sigh and shook her head. "I'm sorry... I don't."
Henry slumped against the wall, short of breath repeating 'this can't be happening' over and over again under his breath just as the doctor walked in with a worried look on his face, noticing Rika sitting up in her hospital bed with a disturbed look on her face. She looked over at the doctor and swallowed back tears.
"Sir, I'm supposed to know them, aren't I?"
Many of the other digidestined surrounding her clutched onto furniture or the chair-rail on the wall in disbelief. Rika didn't remember any of them anymore.
"Yes, Rika, I'm sorry." The doctor looked over at Henry. "I just finished talking with Rika's mother and grandmother. The fall was harder than we thought. She has amnesia, she can't remember anything in the past year or s--"
"RIKA ARE YOU OKAY?!?"
The doctor was pushed out of her way as Rika's mother ran into the room, rushing to her daughter's side.
"Baby are you okay? Does it hurt, trust me we'll get you the best medical attention in the world!"
"I'm okay, Mom..." Rika replied softly, smiling.
Henry felt his heart sink. 'In the past year or so'.. she remembered her own mother, but not anyone else. The girl that had stolen his heart away, brought out all those hidden feelings he had bundled up inside for so long, had gone back mentally before she had ever met them.
He snapped out of his emotional rut when Rika turned her now watery violet eyes to him.
"I'm sorry... I want to remember you..." she whispered. Henry couldn't really hear what she said, but the words mouthed was enough to make him smile a bit.
"It's okay Rika." he said loud enough for everyone to hear. "I know you do."
Rika had been in the hospital for a whole twenty-four hour period, and Henry still sat in the wooden chair in the corner of Rika's room, refusing to eat anything, always keeping his eye on her. Everyone else, including Rika's own mother and grandmother, had gone home, and despite much pleading from every one of the digidestined, plus his parents and older siblings, Henry stayed behind, saying he made a promise to be with Rika through whatever happened until the day he died and he wasn't going back on that promise now.
He had dwifted off to sleep only hours before, having the landscape of the city outside the large window beside Rika's bed lull him to sleep, when he was awaken by a soft sobbing, not a sobbing from anyone he had heard it from before.
"I should have been there for you... I should have stayed by your side... why wasn't I there to provent this?!" the words were muffled, but Henry could make them all out.
Henry blinked a bit and looked at the clock above Rika's hospital bed before looking over at the person sobbing, as much as possible having the nurse turn the light out in the hospital room once seeing both Rika and Henry were asleep.
"1:48 AM.." he thought to himself, straightening himself a bit in the chair to try and look at the bed.
Henry blinked some more, trying to keep his eyes to stay open and not fall instantly back to sleep, having not slept at all since two days ago when they first came to the hospital.
He managed to look over and bolted up in his chair to a yellow-colored fox digimon, head burried in the blanket beside where Rika slept soundly, and easily being able to tell she was sobbing. Her fur coat glistened in the moonlight floating through the window.
"Renamon?"
Renamon's head came up abruptly. "Henry.. I didn't see you there." she managed to sink back into her sober low tone of voice, standing to her feet, glad her eyes were more digimon-like than human-like, thinking Henry didn't notice her crying.
Renamon's attention switched to Rika, who gave a content sigh in her sleep.
"What... am I supposed to do now? I know she won't remember me if she won't remember you." Renamon choked out, grasping both her paws into tight fists, struggling to keep back more tears.
Henry felt his eyes start to water over. Renamon, even in the past year or so of being concidered 'girlfriend' to his own digimon, had never displayed even being capable of having this sort of emotion.
"Renamon..." he repeated, only sympotheticly this time.
"How can you stand it...? I'm only her digimon, and I'm having a hard time knowing she'll have no memory of me at all."
"I can't." Henry took at step towards Renamon, eyes never peeling off Rika's form. "I can't stand knowing that she might never know me as she did before ever again, that all we've been through is gone now."
Renamon kept silent, staring at her tamer.
"I just think... you should stay at my place until she gets used to the rest of us... humans..."
Renamon was still silent, turning Henry's remark over in her head a few times.
"I'm sure IceRenamon's going to get lonely, I'm probably going to be out of the house and with Rika for awhile when she gets well."
Renamon sighed and nodded. "I know you're right... it's just--"
"Hard.. I know." Henry whispered, and turned his head to look at her, then smiled.
"Go get some rest or something. I'll be home tomorrow morning."
Renamon nodded and vanished into thin air, like she always did, and Henry fell completly silent, walking over to the window and looking out at the city glistening in the moonlight, lake in the park just across the street from them reflecting the stars.
"H-henry?"
Henry spun around to the hospital bed creaking as Rika sat up slowly.
Henry smiled and walked over to her side, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"What are you still doing here?" Rika asked in a low tone of voice, strained and raspy.
"Don't worry about that, you need your rest. The medication the doctors gave you is harsh, you need to lay back down." Henry gently pushed her by her shoulders back into the soft white pillow and smiled once more.
"I'll be here until morning if you need me."
Rika sighed and shifted her gaze to the window, looking out at all the tall buildings glowing a bright white color from the moon. "I still want you to answer the question."
Henry sighed, standing up and lifting the white sheet and baby blue knitted blanket up to her shoulders.
"Something I promised you awhile back. Now you just get some sleep."
Henry walked back around the bed and collasped into the wooden chair. Sure, it wasn't comfortable, but it was good enough for the time being.
Henry smirked again noticing Rika, laying still awake across from him, seeing her slight movements in the moonlight that danced across the bed.
"What's wrong?" he almost laughed at her groan that followed.
"How do you expect me to sleep when you answered my question like that? It only makes me remember that I've forgotten half my childhood."
"Now, that's an overstatement." Henry smirked, and stood back up, sitting on the bed again as she shifted under the sheets to look up at him. "You've only lost your memory for the past year or so... it could be worse."
"Yeah I know I know." she sighed. "But I still mostly have no clue who you are, and it's killing me because somewhere in my mind I know you played a huge part of my life."
Henry hung his head a bit, the lifted it back up to look at her.
"It's not that I did... it's that I am... there's a differance." he moved his hand over to her and softly stroked her hair. "Now go back to sleep... I'll stay right here instead, how about that."
Rika nodded slightly and closed her eyes, rolling over a bit, setting her head on Henry's leg and sighing as she went back to sleep.
Henry just smiled, not thinking much of it, and kept stroking the girl's hair.
The weather had cooled down after a few weeks into the summer months. It was now mid-July, tempatures dipping back down to eighty degrees, and a gentle breeze circling around the figure of Rika Nonaka as she stood on the shoreline of the beach a few miles away from the bustling city she lived in every day. She had tagged along with Henry's family on their trip to this secluded beach, in hopes of making friends with Henry again.
Her recovery had gone along extremely well, better than expected from the doctors, she was sent home a few days after waking up in that hospital room. She still couldn't remember anything about any of her 'friends', or why they were always so surprised if she smiled or said anything kind to them, but she did know that she didn't like being stared at because of her looks. The photos in her room showed her the reason of that story by the tough looking Rika in the pictures, often smirking for a smile or just frowning.
She couldn't understand why she was so angry anymore, why she had to dress so out of place like that, she liked how she dressed now, and so did her mother.
Rika stood on top of a tall gray stone standing amongst others, all relatively lower than what she stood on.
She closed her eyes to the gentle sea breeze rustling through her long auburn hair and let her pastel blue silk skirt float in the breeze, the navy blue hawaiian like flowers on it flowing in waves as the wind rushed through the high split up the side of the skirt that was now up a few inches past her ankles from the wind pressing against it.
She looked over at Henry sitting yards away on the sand of the beach, his head darting in the other direction as soon as she met his eyes. It was obvious to her he had been staring at her quite some time from the look on his brother's face.
She just smiled to herself and went back to looking out at the crystal-like water, reflecting the gray cloudy skies. It was almost like those pictures of New England over in America that she had seen, and it calmed her aching emotions a bit. She smoothed down her white tank top with her hands and pretended not to see Suzy trying desparatly to climb the rock behind her.
Henry's brother nudged him and smirked. "Henry, you better take her before I do..."
Henry looked over briefly at Rika, now holding his little sister on her thigh.
"I don't know.. I thought I did take her..."
"Take her again." he persisted his little brother.
Henry fell silent, digging his hands into the cool sand and watching Rika, who he swore for a brief moment looked his way and smiled.
"She thinks we were just friends, okay... it's not that easy..."
"Fine I'll pair you up then." his brother responded.
Henry sat up straight and stared at him. "No no! Last time you tried to pair me up with someone you failed so miserably that even TAKATO hated my guts for an entire week, and he didn't even know Jennifer!"
"Jennifer was a freak."
"No duh.." Henry felt himself grin, and slip into a laugh right along with his older brother.
"Go talk to her." his brother nudged him with his elbow and nodded towards Rika. "Tell Suzy to come and build a sandcastle or something."
Henry stood up from the sand, and brushed off his beige-colored shorts, looking back up at Rika.
She looked so.... different now. It didn't make much sense to him, seeing that he had seen her dressed differently before, but there was a sort of beauty all it's own in her now.
"Dude... com'on..."
Henry turned around to his brother urging him on.
Henry took a deep breath and started his walk across the sand to the large rock Rika stood on.
"Um.. Suzy... can you leave me and Rika.. alone? Please?" he muttered as he reached the bottom of the rock.
Rika put Suzy back down on the cold rock and let her run off, standing back up in all her beauty and smiled at him.
Henry rubbed the back of his neck slowly as he made his way up the rock beside her.
"How do you like the view?"
Rika smiled once again as he stood beside her, looking out onto the water that reflected a gray color.
"It's lovely."
"Sorta like you." Henry spoke the words, looking over at her out of the corner of his eye.
Rika felt her face burn with the blush coming onto her cheeks and she brushed a loose piece of hair back behind her ear.
"Thank you.. but I'm sure you didn't come over here just to talk to me about my looks."
"No.. I didn't." Henry shoved his hands into his pockets.
"So, what did you come to talk to me about?" Rika looked over at him, a look of curiosity in her eyes.
Henry sat down on the rock, Rika soon following his example, letting her legs dangle over the edge of the rock, with every wave that crashed across the rock, the bottom of her skirt getting more and more wet.
"About our friendship..."
Rika's eyes grew panicked as she looked at him.
Henry just laughed at the look and shook his head. "No no I'm not breaking up our friendship..."
Rika let out a sigh of relief. Things hadn't been going so well with Takato and the rest of the guys in the friendship department, something about name-calling. And Jeri seemed distant of late, not wanting to be around many people except Takato.
"God, I don't know how exactly to say it..." he said a bit under his breath.
Rika sighed and looked out to the ocean standing before them, waiting for him to find words to put it into.
There was much 'um's and 'uh's before Henry cleared his throat, then fell completly silent, only sound was that of Suzy's laughter and the waves banging against each other in the surf.
Rika and Henry both slipped into their own private worlds as one tried to think of what to say, the other trying to hear it before the words came out.
Rika's eyes grew wide and she looked over at him.
"We... were more then just... friends.... weren't we?"
Henry returned her glance, opened his mouth to say something, as one of the waves crashed onto the rock, sending water all over them.
Rika let out a shriek and Henry just covered his face with his arms.
After the wave sank back into the ocean, Henry and Rika looked at each other, Rika with her hair soaken wet, hanging in her face, and Henry, his clothes sticking tightly to his body.
Both burst into roaring laughter at just the look of each other.
Henry stood up, still laughing and took Rika's hand, pulling her up beside him.
"You okay?" he asked, still chuckling a bit as he pushed the hair back out of her face and back behind her ears.
Rika smiled and nodded. "You?"
"Perfect."
Rika just smiled once more and made her way back down the rock, towards the beach to go play a bit with Suzy who had already started to call her name.
Henry waited until he was sure she was just enough out of range not to hear or see him.
"STUPID STUPID STUPID!" he smacked his forehead hard and clentched his fists. It took all the courage he could manage just to say something to her, and it was all for nothing.
He'd... just have to try again. Yeah, that was it. He'd get another chance... but what if he choked like he had before? What if something else were to happen to interrupt him before he got a chance to say...
"HENRY!! LUNCH!"
Henry looked up at Rika running gracefully up to him, spite of her long wet dress.
"Okay.. coming."
Rika came to a slow stop in front of him and frowned. "What's wrong?"
Henry shrugged and started to walk back to the sandy beach. "Nothing... nevermind it."
Rika walked right beside him, and stepped closer to him, nudging him with her hip. "I know something's wrong... we'll get to talk later.. you said you'd take me to dinner tonight remember?"
Henry laughed, he'd tottally forgotten that promise he made. "Yes I remember now..."
Rika placed a kiss on his cheek and laughed mischievously. "Race 'ya over there!"
Like that she was off, prancing like a startled deer towards the beach.
"HEY THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Henry yelled after her, taking off.